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FILM / EURASIAN STUDIES / SLAVIC & EASTERN EUROPEAN STUDIES /
GAY & LESBIAN INTEREST
“In the temple of cinema, there are images, light, and reality.
Sergei Parajanov was the master of that temple.”
—Jean-Luc Godard
Sergei Parajanov (1924–90) flouted the rules of both filmmaking and society in
the Soviet Union and paid a heavy personal price. An ethnic Armenian in the
multicultural atmosphere of Tbilisi, Georgia, he was one of the most innovative
directors of postwar Soviet cinema. Parajanov succeeded in creating a small but
marvelous body of work whose style embraces such diverse influences as folk art,
medieval miniature painting, early cinema, Russian and European art films, sur-
realism, and Armenian, Georgian, and Ukrainian cultural motifs.
The Cinema of Sergei Parajanov
is the first English-language book on the direc-
tor’s films and the most comprehensive study of his work. James Steffen provides
a detailed overview of Parajanov’s artistic career: his identity as an Armenian in
Georgia and its impact on his aesthetics; his early films in Ukraine; his inter-
national breakthrough in 1964 with
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
; his challeng-
ing 1969 masterpiece,
The Color of Pomegranates
, which was reedited against his
wishes; his unrealized projects in the 1970s; and his eventual return to inter-
national prominence in the mid-to-late 1980s with
The Legend of the Surami For-
tress
and
Ashik-Kerib
. Steffen also provides a rare, behind-the-scenes view of the
Soviet film censorship process and tells the dramatic story of Parajanov’s conflicts
with the authorities, culminating in his 1973–77 arrest and imprisonment on
charges related to homosexuality.
Ultimately, the figure of Parajanov offers a fascinating case study in the compli-
cated dynamics of power, nationality, politics, ethnicity, sexuality, and culture in
the republics of the former Soviet Union.
James Steffen
is film and media studies librarian at Emory University in Atlanta
and a historian of Soviet and post-Soviet cinema. For more information, visit
.
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
OCTOBER
LC: 2013010422 PN
326 PP. 6 × 9 43 B/W ILLUS., 1 TABLE
E-BOOK $24.95 S ISBN 978-0-299-29653-7
Wisconsin Film Studies
Patrick McGilligan, Series Editor
A MELLON SLAVIC STUDIES
INITIATIVE BOOK
This book is part of an initiative for
publishing first books by scholars
in the fields of Russian, East Euro-
pean, and Central Asian Studies,
supported by the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation.
“Steffen has managed to capture
Parajanov’s unique style in a
language that is simple and
elucidating, making you want to
watch his films again and again.”
—Birgit Beumers, editor of
Studies in
Russian and Soviet Cinema
Of re l at ed int e re s t
Denise J. Youngblood
“A compelling account of the social basis
of the development of Russian cinema.”
—Vance Kepley, University of
Wisconsin–Madison
PUBLISHED APRIL 1999
LC: 98–048706 PN 216 PP.
6 × 9
18 B/W PHOTOS
Wisconsin Film Studies
